POLITICS LIVE: Explosive new book by member of SARS rogue unit to be released on Monday

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Explosive new book by member of SARS rogue unit to be released on Monday

I have just received an intriguing email about a new book which claims to tell the inside story of the SARS 'Rogue Unit' which has been at the centre of the tussle between the Hawks and finance minister, Pravin Gordhan.

Called ROGUE - The Inside Story of SAR's Elite Crime-busting Unit, it is written by Johann van Loggerenberg 'with' Adrian Lackay.

Van Loggerenberg resigned after 16 years in SARS during the scandal. Jonathan Ball describes him with these words: "His name featured publicly for his involvement in SARS investigations into individuals such as Billy Rautenbach, Irvin Khoza, Julius Malema, Lolly Jackson, Glenn Agliotti and Radovan Krejcir.  He currently consults for law firms and private forensic investigation companies."

Lackay was SARS spokesman.

The publishers, Jonathan Ball (full disclosure: They published my books Ragged Glory and The Big Fix) claim the book is "An exposé of national importance that identifies the dark forces at play in politics and the business world".

Here's the publisher's blurb:

The story of a ‘rogue unit’ operating within the South African Revenue Service (SARS) became entrenched in the public mind following a succession of sensational reports published by the Sunday Times in 2014. The unit, the reports claimed, had carried out a series of illegal spook operations: they had spied on President Jacob Zuma, run a brothel, illegally bought spy ware and entered into unlawful tax settlements.

In a plot of Machiavellian proportions, head of the elite crime-busting unit Johann van Loggerenberg and many of SARS’s top management were forced to resign. Van Loggerenberg’s select team of investigators, with their impeccable track record of busting high-level financial fraudsters and nailing tax criminals, lost not only their careers but also their reputations.

Now, in this extraordinary account, they finally get to put the record straight and the rumours to rest:  there was no ‘rogue unit’. The public had been deceived, seemingly by powers conspiring to capture SARS for their own ends.

Shooting down the allegations he has faced one by one, Van Loggerenberg tells the story of what really happened inside SARS, revealing details of some of the unit’s actual investigations.